Dreams by Olive Schreiner (best books to read for self development TXT) 📖
- Author: Olive Schreiner
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well drunken they set the jars among the old ones beside the wall, and took
their places at the table. And I saw that some of the jars were very old
and mildewed and dusty, but others had still drops of new must on them and
shone from the furnace.
And I said to God, “What is that?” For amid the sound of the singing, and
over the dancing of feet, and over the laughing across the wine-cups I
heard a cry.
And God said, “Stand a way off.”
And he took me where I saw both sides of the curtain. Behind the house was
the wine-press where the wine was made. I saw the grapes crushed, and I
heard them cry. I said, “Do not they on the other side hear it?”
God said, “The curtain is thick; they are feasting.”
And I said, “But the men who came in last. They saw?”
God said, “They let the curtain fall behind them—and they forget!”
I said, “How came they by their jars of wine?”
God said, “In the treading of the press these are they who came to the top;
they have climbed out over the edge, and filled their jars from below, and
have gone into the house.”
And I said, “And if they had fallen as they climbed—?”
God said, “They had been wine.”
I stood a way off watching in the sunshine, and I shivered.
God lay in the sunshine watching too.
Then there rose one among the feasters, who said, “My brethren, let us
pray!”
And all the men and women rose: and strong men bowed their heads, and
mothers folded their little children’s hands together, and turned their
faces upwards, to the roof. And he who first had risen stood at the table
head, and stretched out both his hands, and his beard was long and white,
and his sleeves and his beard had been dipped in wine; and because the
sleeves were wide and full they held much wine, and it dropped down upon
the floor.
And he cried, “My brothers and my sisters, let us pray.”
And all the men and women answered, “Let us pray.”
He cried, “For this fair banquet-house we thank thee, Lord.”
And all the men and women said “We thank thee, Lord.”
“Thine is this house, dear Lord.”
“Thine is this house.”
“For us hast thou made it.”
“For us.”
“Oh, fill our jars with wine, dear Lord.”
“Our jars with wine.”
“Give peace and plenty in our time, dear Lord.”
“Peace and plenty in our time”—I said to God, “Whom is it they are talking
to?” God said, “Do I know whom they speak of?” And I saw they were
looking up at the roof; but out in the sunshine, God lay.
“—dear Lord!”
“Dear Lord.”
“Our children’s children, Lord, shall rise and call thee blessed.”
“Our children’s children, Lord.”—I said to God, “The grapes are crying!”
God said, “Still! I hear them”—“shall call thee blessed.”
“Shall call thee blessed.”
“Pour forth more wine upon us, Lord.”
“More wine.”
“More wine.”
“More wine!”
“Wine!!”
“Wine!!”
“Wine!!!”
“Dear Lord!”
Then men and women sat down and the feast went on. And mothers poured out
wine and fed their little children with it, and men held up the cup to
women’s lips and cried, “Beloved! drink,” and women filled their lovers’
flagons and held them up; and yet the feast went on.
And after a while I looked, and I saw the curtain that hung behind the
house moving.
I said to God, “Is it a wind?”
God said, “A wind.”
And it seemed to me, that against the curtain I saw pressed the forms of
men and women. And after a while the feasters saw it move, and they
whispered, one to another. Then some rose and gathered the most worn-out
cups, and into them they put what was left at the bottom of other vessels.
Mothers whispered to their children, “Do not drink all, save a little drop
when you have drunk.” And when they had collected all the dregs they
slipped the cups out under the bottom of the curtain without lifting it.
After a while the curtain left off moving.
I said to God, “How is it so quiet?”
He said, “They have gone away to drink it.”
I said, “They drink it—their own!”
God said, “It comes from this side of the curtain, and they are very
thirsty.”
Then the feast went on, and after a while I saw a small, white hand slipped
in below the curtain’s edge along the floor; and it motioned towards the
wine jars.
And I said to God, “Why is that hand so bloodless?”
And God said, “It is a wine-pressed hand.”
And men saw it and started to their feet; and women cried, and ran to the
great wine jars, and threw their arms around them, and cried, “Ours, our
own, our beloved!” and twined their long hair about them.
I said to God, “Why are they frightened of that one small hand?”
God answered, “Because it is so white.”
And men ran in a great company towards the curtain, and struggled there. I
heard them strike upon the floor. And when they moved away the curtain
hung smooth and still; and there was a small stain upon the floor.
I said to God, “Why do they not wash it out?”
God said, “They cannot.”
And they took small stones and put them down along the edge of the curtain
to keep it down. Then the men and women sat down again at the tables.
And I said to God, “Will those stones keep it down?”
God said, “What think you?”
I said, “If the wind blew?”
God said, “If the wind blew?”
And the feast went on.
And suddenly I cried to God, “If one should rise among them, even of
themselves, and start up from the table and should cast away his cup, and
cry, ‘My brothers and my sisters, stay! what is it that we drink?’—and
with his sword should cut in two the curtain, and holding wide the
fragments, cry, ‘Brothers, sisters, see! it is not wine, not wine! not
wine! My brothers, oh, my sisters!’ and he should overturn the—”
God said, “Be still!—, see there.”
I looked: before the banquet-house, among the grass, I saw a row of
mounds, flowers covered them, and gilded marble stood at their heads. I
asked God what they were.
He answered, “They are the graves of those who rose up at the feast and
cried.”
And I asked God how they came there.
He said, “The men of the banquet-house rose and cast them down backwards.”
I said, “Who buried them?”
God said, “The men who cast them down.”
I said, “How came it that they threw them down, and then set marble over
them?”
God said, “Because the bones cried out, they covered them.”
And among the grass and weeds I saw an unburied body lying; and I asked God
why it was.
God said, “Because it was thrown down only yesterday. In a little while,
when the flesh shall have fallen from its bones, they will bury it also,
and plant flowers over it.”
And still the feast went on.
Men and women sat at the tables quaffing great bowls. Some rose, and threw
their arms about each other, and danced and sang. They pledged each other
in the wine, and kissed each other’s blood-red lips.
Higher and higher grew the revels.
Men, when they had drunk till they could no longer, threw what was left in
their glasses up to the roof, and let it fall back in cascades. Women dyed
their children’s garments in the wine, and fed them on it till their tiny
mouths were red. Sometimes, as the dancers whirled, they overturned a
vessel, and their garments were bespattered. Children sat upon the floor
with great bowls of wine, and swam rose-leaves on it, for boats. They put
their hands in the wine and blew large red bubbles.
And higher and higher grew the revels, and wilder the dancing, and louder
and louder the singing. But here and there among the revellers were those
who did not revel. I saw that at the tables here and there were men who
sat with their elbows on the board and hands shading their eyes; they
looked into the wine-cup beneath them, and did not drink. And when one
touched them lightly on the shoulder, bidding them to rise and dance and
sing, they started, and then looked down, and sat there watching the wine
in the cup, but they did not move.
And here and there I saw a woman sit apart. The others danced and sang and
fed their children, but she sat silent with her head aside as though she
listened. Her little children plucked her gown; she did not see them; she
was listening to some sound, but she did not stir.
The revels grew higher. Men drank till they could drink no longer, and lay
their heads upon the table sleeping heavily. Women who could dance no more
leaned back on the benches with their heads against their lovers’
shoulders. Little children, sick with wine, lay down upon the edges of
their mothers’ robes. Sometimes, a man rose suddenly, and as he staggered
struck the tables and overthrew the benches; some leaned upon the
balustrades sick unto death. Here and there one rose who staggered to the
wine jars and lay down beside them. He turned the wine tap, but sleep
overcame him as he lay there, and the wine ran out.
Slowly the thin, red stream ran across the white marbled floor; it reached
the stone steps; slowly, slowly, slowly it trickled down, from step to
step, from step to step: then it sank into the earth. A thin white smoke
rose up from it.
I was silent; I could not breathe; but God called me to come further.
And after I had travelled for a while I came where on seven hills lay the
ruins of a mighty banquet-house larger and stronger than the one which I
had seen standing.
I said to God, “What did the men who built it here?”
God said, “They feasted.”
I said, “On what?”
God said, “On wine.”
And I looked; and it seemed to me that behind the ruins lay still a large
circular hollow within the earth where a foot of the wine-press had stood.
I said to God, “How came it that this large house fell?”
God said, “Because the earth was sodden.”
He called me to come further.
And at last we came upon a hill where blue waters played, and white marble
lay upon the earth. I said to God, “What was here once?”
God said, “A pleasure house.”
I looked, and at my feet great pillars lay. I cried aloud for joy to God,
“The marble blossoms!”
God said, “Ay, ‘twas a fairy house. There has not been one like to it, nor
ever shall be. The pillars and the porticoes blossomed; and the wine cups
were as gathered flowers: on this side all the curtain was broidered with
fair designs, the stitching was of gold.”
I said to God, “How came it that it fell?”
God said,
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